Redstone: Drool pillar -nothing at all, not even a damp smear. Avocado Gully 1st pitch: nada. 2nd pitch is too thin and any ascent may blast it out for weeks. Vail: thin but close. Dont bother with the racket club, very very incomplete.

Awesome! Thanks :o) If you hear from your friends, let me know how their climb went. Anything else in the area in and worthy of attacking?

I did Glenwood Falls solo maybe in 1995(?) leashes one piece suit etc. It was a cloudy day very cold one chunk of ice came down while I suited up but the clouds rolled in so I headed up. Right at the top of the steep ice there was a hole in the ice and when I looked down the hole I could see my own shadow against the ice there was nothing but flowing water under me and the thin pane of vertical ice I was on...

Before I had begun the approach from the road a CDOT worker had tried to talk me out of going he apparently didn't want to have to look for my mangled body. I stepped over the guard rail en route and nearly fell over the memorial to the two guys killed when the thing had collapsed.

This is one to avoid I would say. Absolutely not worth anyone's life...

Thanks for the beta Cor, looks good enough to try today and maybe some heat will lead to quick neve formation? The word on Loch Vale this week from a friend: climbed Mo Flow than Go, as Crystal Meth and L of Lochluster don't seem to want to grow much. The ice was brittle and old.

Nina, Hi. We got the name "Cotton Balls" In Jack Roberts guide book "Colorado Ice" volume 1 on page 131. I believe that it was unnamed until Jack gave the route this designation at the time he wrote the book. The climb is a few hundred yards west of "Cotton Picker & Cotton Mouth", both a mile and a half up canyon from the mighty "Sherman Climb" in Sherman CO, 20 miles west of Lake City, CO.

Nina, Hi. We got the name "Cotton Balls" In Jack Roberts guide book "Colorado Ice" volume 1 on page 131. I beleive that it was unnamed until Jack gave the route this designation at the time he wrote the book. The climb is a few hundred yards west of "Cotton Picker & Cotton Mouth", both a mile and a half up canyon from the mighty "Sherman Climb" in Sherman CO, 20 miles west of Lake City, CO.

Thanks guys! Found it now in the book. Hope to check it out when we are in Lake City in two weeks...

@Phil: The North Face can definitely hold enough snow to slide, it's a popular ski descent and I've been up there post-holing up to my thighs in places. Wind slabs can form really quickly with the wind that Longs gets up there.

Having said that, I don't know how OFTEN it slides, and looking at the RMNP webcam the cables descent looks pretty dry.